Road trip to Leh Ladakh - July 2007: Leg 3
Strecth 3: Leh to Khardungla to Pangong tso lake and back to leh
The day started with a bad note as we were stopped by a travel agent. We had asked him to get permissions for visiting few of the restricted places, which we got it ourselves from DC office. 1000 bokka :( :(
The road to Khardungla was good except for the last part. Silky curves all along. One of the curves was named as "Siachen Gate". Senthil, hari and myself were struck as an army truck broke down and there were no space for even a bike to pass through. Finally made it after 1/2 an hours wait. The first thing that we did was take photo with the boards which read world's highest motorable road. The entire stretch was dry. We thought we should have come in end of June or end of September when we can find snow everywhere including the roads. Its like riding on ice.
Had hot Maggi in world's highest Maggi shop. Lots of photos taken and the first group photo was here. Hari setting up the tripod for the video which has captured Johny's dance sequence, Senthil trying out moonwalk and Lalith worried about the Khardungla board.
This road continues to Nubra Valley, Panamik and Siachen which we couldn't make it for time constraints. Viji and gang had decided they will not ride back and take bus/lorry. Descended down and parted off with they heading to manali and we riding towards Pangong Tso lake. It was around 140 Km and we started thinking we will try to cover as much as possible. We crossed Karu and stopped at Sakti. Had snacks and relaxed before we started again. Bhanu, Harisha and Naresha were well ahead of us. Naresha and Bhanu were not at the scene. We asked Harisha, where were they, he didnt know, so we started moving ahead. Even before we could reach Changla pass, sun set and was pitch dark. The bullet was hardly able to pull Hari and Harisha. Even I was strugling losing balance at streams. Senthil was there to help me. Reached Changla with great difficulties. We were not at all ready to ride any further. Army people didn't give for our persistent pleading and didn't let us sleep in the camp. We had to travel another 16 Kms before we found a tent - an oasis for us. Bhanu and Naresha were furiously screaming at us. Got to eat MTR kesari bath. 3 beds for seven of us. Naresha enjoying the company of Harisha :) :). Day started early and reached Pangong tso lake in a short time.
Pangong tso <>.
An awesome place to camp. Would have loved to stay back here for the rest of the day but had different plans. Drove back to Leh. few Kms before the destination, first flat tyre - Bhanu's bike. We managed to remove the tyre. But couldn't inflate the tyre with the junk leg pump that we had. Got one chotu from the nearby shop. While chotu got his hands on karIZma, me and senthil went ahead to get rooms booked before they reach Leh.
The day started with a bad note as we were stopped by a travel agent. We had asked him to get permissions for visiting few of the restricted places, which we got it ourselves from DC office. 1000 bokka :( :(
The road to Khardungla was good except for the last part. Silky curves all along. One of the curves was named as "Siachen Gate". Senthil, hari and myself were struck as an army truck broke down and there were no space for even a bike to pass through. Finally made it after 1/2 an hours wait. The first thing that we did was take photo with the boards which read world's highest motorable road. The entire stretch was dry. We thought we should have come in end of June or end of September when we can find snow everywhere including the roads. Its like riding on ice.
Had hot Maggi in world's highest Maggi shop. Lots of photos taken and the first group photo was here. Hari setting up the tripod for the video which has captured Johny's dance sequence, Senthil trying out moonwalk and Lalith worried about the Khardungla board.
This road continues to Nubra Valley, Panamik and Siachen which we couldn't make it for time constraints. Viji and gang had decided they will not ride back and take bus/lorry. Descended down and parted off with they heading to manali and we riding towards Pangong Tso lake. It was around 140 Km and we started thinking we will try to cover as much as possible. We crossed Karu and stopped at Sakti. Had snacks and relaxed before we started again. Bhanu, Harisha and Naresha were well ahead of us. Naresha and Bhanu were not at the scene. We asked Harisha, where were they, he didnt know, so we started moving ahead. Even before we could reach Changla pass, sun set and was pitch dark. The bullet was hardly able to pull Hari and Harisha. Even I was strugling losing balance at streams. Senthil was there to help me. Reached Changla with great difficulties. We were not at all ready to ride any further. Army people didn't give for our persistent pleading and didn't let us sleep in the camp. We had to travel another 16 Kms before we found a tent - an oasis for us. Bhanu and Naresha were furiously screaming at us. Got to eat MTR kesari bath. 3 beds for seven of us. Naresha enjoying the company of Harisha :) :). Day started early and reached Pangong tso lake in a short time.
Pangong tso <>.
An awesome place to camp. Would have loved to stay back here for the rest of the day but had different plans. Drove back to Leh. few Kms before the destination, first flat tyre - Bhanu's bike. We managed to remove the tyre. But couldn't inflate the tyre with the junk leg pump that we had. Got one chotu from the nearby shop. While chotu got his hands on karIZma, me and senthil went ahead to get rooms booked before they reach Leh.
Comments
Why can't you add those photos in the blog